Visual or manually operable electrical devices, such as speedometers, fuel and oil gauges and radio and HVAC control modules, that are mounted on automotive instrument panels are commonly connected to a flexible printed circuit behind the instrument panel.
See for instance, U.S. Pat. No. 5,620,329 granted Apr. 15, 1997, to Richard L. Kidd et al. for a self aligning electrical connective arrangement and assigned to the assignee of this invention. The self aligning electrical connective arrangement of this patent is particularly suitable for blind assembly and comprises a male plug that is mounted on an interior wall of an instrument panel and a female socket that is attached to an electrical component so that the female socket plugs onto the male plug when the electrical component is mounted on the instrument panel.
The male plug includes a platform and a flexible printed circuit that is wrapped about the platform with portions of its conductive strips exposed for electrical connection. The female socket connector houses a plurality of terminals that have resilient tongues that engage the exposed conductive portions of the flexible printed circuit when the female socket plugs onto the male plug. While this arrangement is satisfactory for its intended purpose and facilitates blind assembly, the flexible printed circuit limits the number of times that the female socket of the electrical connection system can be disconnected and reconnected with the male plug.